Private Equity Blogger

Evolution theory by Charles Darwin is probably one of the most significant theories in the world of biology. The theory is emphasizing the fact that every single organism ever live on this earth changes from time to time. The change is caused by natural selection and the alteration in organism’s traits. Below are some of essential facts about the theory.

How Darwin “Didn’t Believe” in God

The founder of evolution theory is Charles Darwin. Well, the British naturalist gained the attention when he published his famous book “On the Origin of Species”. With the book, he made numerous people shocked by making statement against God.

When he published the book, most philosophers believe that life is created by supernatural being, like God. However, Darwin said no to them. He stated every species presents on earth slowly evolved over million years from common ancestor.

In addition, even though a lot of people accused Darwin did not believe in God, he has changed the way people viewed the change in life. His ideas about evolution and natural selection always make sense to this very day.

The Darwin’s Thought on Natural Selection

Darwin called the process slowly evolved species as “natural selection” because he believed nature had everything to do with it. Basically, Darwin stated that the individuals successfully passed the traits to the descent were the ones best adapted.

Furthermore, Darwin also believed numerous individuals on earth had different form from their ancestors. They were slowly transformed into “something else” over time. Some of the transformation examples are:

• Reptiles into birds
• Fish into lizards
• Apes into humans

The Heritable Physical and Behavioral Traits

In this case, genes control the heritable traits that responsible for the evolution. These traits are both physical and behavioral. These traits can be inherited by the offspring. However, the traits resulted from interaction between environment and individual is not heritable.

Say for example, the facial shape is fully genetic. It is totally heritable and passed on to the next generation from time to time. However, if an individual has suntan, which is the result of the interaction between individual and environment (sunlight), the suntan will not get passed on.

“Survival of the Fittest”

Still according to Darwin’s theory, nature has the ability to select which individual trait will survive.

Essentially, the individual that can adapt to nature is the one that survives. Nature has limited resources and all organisms need to compete against nature. Yes, they only have two choices: adapt or extinct.

This is where the famous phrase by Darwin “survival of the fittest” is found. He believed that human is the result of ape’s attempt to adapt with nature and its changes.

Those are some of facts that you need to know about this theory. If you are into biology, learning more about the theory is always something you can fully enjoy. It is because, besides those facts above, there are still plenty of interesting things you can dig from this evolution theory.

Children learn the great deal about earth and universe from solar system project. In many schools, teachers provide the basic knowledge regarding astronomy. Then, children will do project that represents the sun and planets, including earth.

This project seems trivial, but has huge impact to kids. They help to put what’s in book into reality. Modeling solar system helps you to understand the way planets move around with the sun as its center.

Solar System using Styrofoam

The simplest way to create solar system is using Styrofoam. Additional tools are glue, stick or rod, paper, color painting, and scissor. Here are the steps.

• Cut Styrofoam into balls with different size with proper proportion.
• Paint them in different colors, such as orange for sun, blue for earth, etc.
• Add stick to small ball then put another side on big one (as Sun).
• Make sure the sticks have different length that represents distance.
• Use paper to name the planets and put it on ball using glue.

Those are steps to create your own solar system. Kids can do it step by step easily. Keep them busy, but supervise thoroughly.

Wooden Project

Wooden is material that can be shaped into many things. For solar system project, you can apply it. This is not project for kids only, but it needs teacher and adult support.

You have two ways for using wood in this project. First, purchase product on market then assemble it based on instruction. Second, just prepare DIY project, which takes time and effort.

To do the second option, cut wood in different size then shape them into globe contour. This is the most difficult thing without proper tool and method. After the process is done, add hole in different position, but make sure it is at the same line. Put the rod that connects big one (Sun) and the small ones using rod.

Puzzle Solar System

In addition, instead of project from scratch, teachers may consider to prepare puzzle. It will save time and effort, but still eligible for educational project.

You can create puzzle using Styrofoam or wood. Incomplete solar system provides basic task that children must find the missing piece. In Styrofoam, arrange planets in the right order then let children to add name on them.

For wood project, the design is similar but it can be extended with moon and satellite. They are for advanced study where students need to know the astronomy and universe terms.

Paper and Cardboard Project

Paper is good option for school project. Keep in mind that using paper does not mean it’s a printed solar system. There is task to form and shape paper or cardboard to represent Sun and the planets.

Firstly, prepare enough newspaper to make big ball shape then cover it with white one. Make more with various sizes from the biggest to smallest. Use rod to connect universe center, the biggest one, and the rest of planets. Add name for each planets in solar system project.

Working in the private equity domain can have ups and downs, especially for those who  are just beginning their career in this area. It’s something that is about money, and in finance, the private equity is the asset class that consists of equity securities and debt in those operating companies which are not publicly traded on a stock exchange.

In short, no matter if it’s about a venture capital, a private equity firm or an angel investor, there are different strategies that are used and they have the same goal – to provide the working capital for a target company, in order to nurture new product development, expansion or restructuring the operations and management of the company.

Here are some secrets to make sure you make a career in the private equity domain, easily explained for those who want to become partners in such firms.

Do the Hard Things

As a beginner, you’ll need to show others that you’re ready to take on the hard stuff, the difficult and tough tasks. Everyone would love to work on new tasks, but those who take on those tasks that require a big attention for details are easily noticed, not to mention noticed faster. If you’re an associate, the most experienced people say that it’s harder to get credit for winning, but you can get tons of credit for helping fix the losers. This will help you in getting more authority and a higher degree of autonomy.

Focusing on Private Equity Portfolio Companies

It’s a rule that says that you have to make your portfolio CFOs and CEOs happy first, and then you can move to your private equity boss. This means that you will be able to learn more about what matters in a business and what matters for your own career from the management teams you interact with than from your co-workers.

Playing Nice

This is another rule that you’ll have to try to respect. There’s an upside about having a private equity – a PE role versus the banking area that you’ve quit, as the first one puts you in the position of having influence regularly. It also lets you have a position where you really look bad, and everyone who you have the opportunity to meet outside your firm can consider you too pompous and less qualified. It’s better to show the image of a grateful, humble and self-aware person and it will be a win-win situation for everyone.

Shut Up and Find the Right Time

Even if you do have more knowledge than the people around you, working in an environment that allows little influence from the bottom up, you need to bite your  tongue and bide your time. It would be the perfect opportunity to gather some experience and wait until a better job offering appears in finance or another company. Working in private equity firms often opens up doors to other related domains.

Think Twice about This Career

This domain is similar to any other domain, no matter if you’re thinking about banking or consulting, because being an entry-level associate in PE has very little to do with your requirements for the job as a partner. You need to think really hard if you really want to spend the next 20 years doing what is required in a private equity company. Even if it does seem that it’s a very interesting job, it doesn’t always mean that it is your career.

Even if you do have the needed skills for processing a deal, are you sure you also have the interest in finding these deals, managing the investors and managing the funds? These are important questions that you need to answer to sooner than later.